Lou Williams (23), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2), Danilo Gallinari (8) and the rest of the Clippers over-achieved this season, but their series-ending Game 6 loss to the Warriors on Friday night was a reminder that they’ll need more than effort and energy to advance deeper in next year’s playoffs. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

LOS ANGELES — Rarely has a team basked in such love because it did its job.

You wonder if it says more about the Clippers, who swam upstream to win 48 games and made Golden State break a furious sweat in the first round, or the NBA, where “effort” and “energy” are praised profusely because they’re not always seen.

The Clippers started strongly against Golden State and then wilted under the relentless raindrops of Kevin Durant and the human smorgasbord that is Draymond Green. The Warriors won Game 6, 129-110, and the series, 4-2, and they open Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals against Houston on Sunday afternoon.

“I love their team,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said, not for the first time. “That’s just a beautiful basketball team. There were times when we thought we had them and we didn’t have them. They brought out our best.”

The past four Warriors teams have gotten to the NBA Finals and three of them won championships. Their first-round opponents had two wins in those four years. The Clippers duplicated that in this series. So, there’s that.

But Durant ended any miracle talk with 50 points on Friday, and all of them seemed to either extend a Warriors’ spree or stop whatever the Clippers were mustering.

The Warriors thus sent play-by-play man Ralph Lawler to his retirement home in Bend, Ore., by honoring the 100-point Lawler’s Law. The most irreplaceable member of the Clippers’ organization laughed at halftime when someone asked him if Durant was trying to validate the Law by himself.

All Durant was doing was demonstrating the Second Law. Talent wins.

Championships are won in June but arranged in July. The Clippers have a lot of money for free agents, for guys who can yawn, stretch their legs and get 50. A lot of teams have money, but if nothing else is in place, the money’s no good. At the very least, the Clippers have shown the Durants and Kawhi Leonards that they have an identifiable way of playing, a group of players more talented than anyone thinks, and none of the avoidable chaos that has consumed the Lakers. If you want to come to L.A., as many people who have full-time drivers want to do, this would seem to be the team.

That, more than finishing eighth and keeping Sacramento out of the playoffs, is what the Clippers accomplished.

Players came to the Clippers and got better, by the month in some cases. Take Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the 11th pick in last year’s draft.

He was the only “plus” player among the first eight Clippers, if you like that stat, and he got 22 points with six assists. As the Clippers seized a 10-point first quarter lead, Gilgeous-Alexander was the main driver, literally. They needed another epicurean night from Lou Williams, but the Warriors trapped him immediately and watched him miss 18 of 21 shots. The growth plate of this team is Gilgeous-Alexander.

“There are so many things I learned this year I can’t even think of them all,” he said. “In a series like this, you learn about focus. Every possession means so much. You learn how to see the game. Doc (coach Rivers) told us before the season that we’d have to play hard every night to be successful, and we all bought into it.

“There are so many things this summer I want to focus on. I think I’m going to come back with a better shot. Right now I haven’t figured out exactly what I’ll be doing. I didn’t plan on going home this early.”

Nearby in the locker room, Landry Shamet was also dealing with the brick wall of elimination. He was finishing his rookie year, too, one that will always be identified with his winning shot in Game 2’s record-setting comeback. He and Gilgeous-Alexander will be the sophomore backcourt next season, depending on the supermax newcomers.

“I knew Shai was a good player,” Shamet said. “I’m excited that I get to grow with him. We weren’t even together for half the season (after Shamet was acquired in the trade that sent Tobias Harris to Philadelphia).

“He always was a well-rounded guy with a good feel. He’s a very balanced point guard. He’s not a pass-first or shoot-first point guard. He’s unselfish, yet he’s aggressive. He knows when to score, yet he knows how to get other guys involved. He’s just a solid player. His growth even the last couple of months has been incredible, fun to watch.”

Gilgeous-Alexander also is 6-foot-6 and does not turn 21 until July 12.

There is also plenty in reserve. Rivers shelved Ivica Zubac in this series, for the most part, but this is a guy who went 9 for 10 at Golden State on Christmas Night, in his Lakers days.

“These six games honestly felt like two months in terms of all the adjustments and the emotional roller coaster,” said Warriors point guard Steph Curry, a two-time league MVP. “It tested us. They played amazing.”

No league pigeonholes its teams like the NBA, and its intelligentsia does. The Clippers’ gift to us this season was unpredictability.

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.